Travis Snider

The Mets have announced two minor acquisitions, with outfielder Travis Snider joining the club through a trade with the Rangers and righty Neil Wagner signing a minors deal with the organization. Both players will head to Triple-A Las Vegas.

Snider, 29, comes over in a minor swap with the Rangers. He did not need to clear waivers since he was on the 40-man roster. Cash considerations will go to Texas in return, per Marc Carig of Newsday (via Twitter).

Though he has not seen the majors since 2015, Snider has taken nearly two thousand plate appearances at the game’s highest level with the Blue Jays, Pirates, and Orioles. He had been playing with the Rangers’ top affiliate this year, posting a .294/.375/.435 batting line over 413 trips to the plate.

New York doesn’t have a clear need at the major league level for Snider right now, but perhaps that could change. The club has moved numerous veterans already, and may still consider swaps involving Curtis Granderson.

Wagner, too, could either function as upper-level depth or provide a fresh arm to the pen. Like Snider, he has appeared in the bigs with Toronto; he also had a brief debut stint with the A’s. Wagner hasn’t seen the majors since 2014, but was pitching well this year at Triple-A in the Rays organization. Through 44 innings, he owns a 3.07 ERA with 8.4 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9.

The Rangers and outfielder Travis Snider have agreed to a minor league contract, tweets Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports. Snider’s deal will pay him a base salary of $1MM if he makes the big league roster in Texas.

Snider, a CAA Sports client, spent the 2016 season with Kansas City’s Triple-A affiliate and batted a disappointing .245/.340/.350 in 322 plate appearances. The former first-round pick once rated among the game’s top 10 prospects, per both Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus, but that potential was never fulfilled. Snider debuted as a 20-year-old back in 2008 and held his own through parts of three seasons from ages 20-22, hitting .255/.318/.446 with 25 homers in 675 plate appearances.

While Snider’s production tailed off in the coming years, he did enjoy a very nice 2014 campaign in Pittsburgh, hitting .264/.338/.438 with 13 home runs in 359 plate appearances. But, a trade to the Orioles that offseason yielded more struggles, and Snider didn’t appear in the Majors at all last year.

For the Rangers, Snider provides a depth option with MLB experience that can compete for a bench job in Spring Training or head to Triple-A and wait in the wings in the event of an injury. At present, the Rangers project to utilize Nomar Mazara, Carlos Gomez and Shin-Soo Choo in the outfield, though the possibility of adding an outfielder and shifting Choo to the DH slot does exist. Texas is also likely to bring Josh Hamilton back on a minor league contract, so Snider will presumably be competing with him this spring as well.

The Tigers have removed Anibal Sanchez from the rotation and replaced him with left-hander Matt Boyd, as Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press writes. Sanchez took the move as well as could be expected, manager Brad Ausmus told the media, and Fenech writes that Sanchez spoke with conviction about working to correct his flaws and reclaim his job. Sanchez, who is earning $16MM in 2016, the fourth season of a five-year, $80MM contract, has surrendered a 6.67 ERA through his first 56 2/3 innings of the year. He led the American League with 29 homers allowed in 157 innings last season and has allowed an even more alarming 14 long balls in this year’s 56 2/3 frames while also displaying his worst control since 2009 (4.6 BB/9). Sanchez is owed $16MM once again in 2017, and the Tigers hold a $16MM club option for the 2018 season that comes with a hefty $5MM buyout. With offseason signee Mike Pelfrey struggling so greatly as well, the Tigers are definite candidates to seek rotation upgrades this summer, though the emergence of Michael Fulmer and a recent string of solid outings for Daniel Norris at Triple-A may lessen the urgency.

More from the AL Central…

The Indians need to trade for an outfield bat in the wake of Marlon Byrd’s 162-game suspension, opines Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Suspensions for Byrd and Abraham Almonte, combined with the shoulder woes of Michael Brantley, has left Cleveland with an outfield mix of Rajai Davis, Tyler Naquin, Lonnie Chisenhall and Jose Ramirez. As Hoynes writes, the Indians “have pretty much said” that top prospects Bradley Zimmer and Clint Frazier won’t play in the Majors this season, so neither Double-A outfielder seems like an immediate option. President of baseball operations Chris Antonetti said to Hoynes that the club will “take some time to determine” if a trade is necessary, and he also explained that the club “spent a lot of time working through” Byrd’s first positive test before electing to sign him. Byrd, of course, went three years between suspensions and passed numerous drug tests along the way.

Twins outfield prospect Max Kepler hasn’t seen much playing time in either of his first two stints at the Major League level, but manager Paul Molitor said that this time around, he’ll get more of a chance at regular playing time, writes MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger. The 23-year-old German outfielder raked at a .322/.416/.531 clip at Double-A last season en route to Southern League MVP honors, and he batted .282/.367/.455 in 30 games at Triple-A after being demoted to Rochester earlier this season. Notably, Bollinger adds that the Triple-A coaching staff recommended Kepler over recently demoted Eddie Rosario, who is hitting .333 since a mid-May demotion but still hasn’t drawn a walk in 51 plate appearances.

Travis Snider will not opt out of his minor league contract with the Royals, per SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (Twitter link). The 28-year-old had a June 1 opt-out date but will instead remain with Triple-A Omaha, where he’s batted .259/.377/.348 in 162 plate appearances. The Royals have lost Alex Gordon to a fracture in his hand for the time being, so perhaps the hope is that a need in the outfield corner will lead to a promotion in the near future.

APRIL 9: Duensing has a May 15 opt-out date, while Barmes and Snider can each opt out June 1, MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan tweets.

APRIL 1: The Royals have announced that they’ve re-signed lefty Brian Duensing, shortstop Clint Barmes and outfielder Travis Snider to minor-league deals. (Chris Cotillo of SB Nation had previously reported that the Royals were looking to re-sign Barmes.) All three had previously been in camp with the Royals, and all three had been released. (Duensing had also opted out of his minor-league deal with them.) Both Duensing and Barmes were Article XX(B) free agents, meaning the Royals would have had to pay them a $100K retention bonus had they remained with the organization through the week.

All three will provide the Royals with minor-league depth. The 33-year-old Duensing was previously a key part of the Twins bullpen, although his strikeout rate has dropped from 8.3 K/9 to 4.4 in the past two seasons. He has a career 4.13 ERA, 5.9 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9 in seven seasons in Minnesota (the first few of which he spent as a starter).

Barmes batted .232/.281/.333 in 224 plate appearances in 2015 with the Padres. He has also posted gaudy defensive numbers in the past, although UZR and DRS both saw the 37-year-old’s fielding as taking steps backward in the past two seasons. He can also play second base in addition to shortstop.

Snider hit .232/.313/.350 in 265 plate appearances last year with the Orioles and Pirates. The left-handed hitter is still just 28, however, and had a strong .264/.338/.438 season with the Bucs in 2014.

Ryan Powell’s pro baseball career consisted of four seasons in independent leagues before becoming a scout in 2013, and his mother Wendy never got to see her son play his final game. With Wendy now suffering from brain cancer, the Orioles arranged for Powell (the club’s head of independent scouting) to play an inning during the team’s intrasquad game on Tuesday with both his parents in attendance. MLB.com’s Brittany Ghiroli has the full story, which includes information on how you can donate to various cancer charities by bidding on one of Powell’s specialty bats, autographed by several MLB players. Here’s more from Baltimore…

While the Orioles may still add a left-handed hitting outfielder and a lefty reliever, MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko doesn’t expect the club to bring back former Orioles Travis Snider or Wesley Wright. Snider and Wright are both free agents after being recently cut by the Royals and Diamondbacks, respectively.

The release of Miguel Gonzalez wasn’t a popular move within the Orioles clubhouse, Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun writes, as Gonzalez was extremely well-liked by his teammates. There was “a lot of anger” about the move both yesterday and today, Ghiroli tweets, and “guys are upset, shocked by the whole thing.” The transaction has logic from a business perspective, as Gonzalez hasn’t pitched well and the O’s could recoup around $4MM of Gonzalez’s $5.1MM salary by releasing him now (or they could get the entire salary off the books if the righty is claimed by another team). Gonzalez also had a minor league option remaining, however, so Baltimore’s decision to release him instead of sending him to Triple-A “has to scare practically every player in that clubhouse,” as Encina writes.

The Orioles have had their share of messy situations this spring, Encina noted in another article, including the fact that $7MM investment Hyun Soo Kimlikely won’t make the Opening Day roster. Kim’s contract stipulates that he can’t be optioned to the minors, and while the Orioles got out of a similar situation with another Korean player in Suk Min Yoon two years ago, that move was helped by Yoon being able to find a higher salary with a Korea Baseball Organization team. According to Encina, the O’s are having a tough time finding a KBO club willing to top Kim’s $7MM salary over the next two seasons. Between Kim, Yoon and the Orioles’ controversial signing of pitcher Seong-min Kim a few years ago, Encina wonders if the team is hurting its chances of signing future Korean talent.

As we near the end of Spring Training, it’s a big day — if you can call it that — for minor moves. Here’s the latest from around the league.

The Royals have released outfielder Travis Snider, Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star tweets. They had signed Snider to a minor-league deal after he hit .232/.313/.350 with the Orioles and Pirates last year. He had been looking to compete for a bench job.

The Royals have also re-signed righty sidearmer Peter Moylan to a minor-league deal, Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star tweets. The 37-year-old came back to pitch for the Braves last season after having Tommy John surgery, and the Royals signed him to a minor-league deal only to release him earlier this week to avoid paying him a retention bonus.

Third baseman Will Middlebrooks could have refused to let the Brewers send him to the minors, but he’s accepted an assignment to Triple-A Colorado Springs, Tom Haudricourt of the Journal Sentinel tweets. Middlebrooks hit .212/.241/.361 in 255 plate appearances last season for San Diego and did not win a job with the Brewers out of Spring Training.

The Marlins have re-signed utilityman Don Kelly to a minor-league deal, MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro tweets. The Marlins had released Kelly yesterday, likely to avoid paying him a $100K retention bonus as an Article XX(B) free agent. The longtime Tigers bench piece played sparingly in the Marlins organization in 2015.

The Marlins also released first baseman Tommy Medica today, Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith tweets. Medica played in 102 games with the Padres in 2014, but did not play in the big leagues last year, instead batting .259/.314/.364 in 363 plate appearances for San Diego’s Triple-A affiliate in El Paso.

The Tigers have re-signed veteran infielder Casey McGehee to a minor-league deal, tweets MLB.com’s Jason Beck. They had released him this week. As with Kelly and Moylan, McGehee would have been owed a retention bonus. McGehee struggled with San Francisco and Miami in 2015, batting .198/.264/.274 in 258 plate appearances.

White Sox righty Kameron Loe has received an 80-game suspension for PEDs, Stefan Stevenson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram notes (Twitterlinks). Officially, Loe tested positive for dehydrochlormethyltestosterone metabolite and methasterone. He says on his Twitter account that he was caught taking an unapproved product he bought at a nutrition store. Loe was also suspended 50 games last year, although that was for a “drug of abuse,” not for PED use. He pitched in the independent Atlantic League in 2015 before signing a minor-league deal with Chicago.

The Rays have released first-baseman-turned-knuckleballer Dan Johnson, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets. The 36-year-old Johnson, who briefly played for the Cardinals last year, had been trying for a sort of second career as a pitcher after years spent as a slugger on the fringes of the big leagues.

The Royals have announced that they’ve signed corner outfielder Travis Snider to a minor league deal with a Spring Training invite. Snider is a client of CAA Sports.

Snider, who will turn 28 this week, batted .232/.313/.350 in 265 plate appearances split between the Orioles and Pirates in 2015. The Orioles sent two pitching prospects to Pittsburgh for Snider he performed well in a part-time role in 2014, but he was a disappointment in Baltimore and was ultimately released. He re-signed with the Bucs and rejoined the team when rosters expanded in September.

Snider, the 14th overall pick in the 2006 draft, was once a top prospect in the Blue Jays organization but has struggled to string together productive seasons in the Majors. He has, however, done just enough with the bat (with a career .244/.311/.399 line) to potentially provide an organization with a good left-handed bench option. Yahoo! Sports’ Jeff Passan tweets that Snider is one of the higher-upside players to sign a minor league deal this offseason, and given Snider’s youth and pedigree, it’s hard to argue that point. It’s worth noting, however, that there will be limited time for the Royals to realize that upside, since Snider can become a free agent again with about a half a season more service time.

As MLBTR’s Charlie Wilmoth wrote recently in his offseason outlook piece on the Bucs, both Snider and Ishikawa profiled as non-tender candidates. Both returned to the Pirates in the middle of the 2015 season after starting the year elsewhere, playing minor roles down the stretch.

Snider, 27, had a nice campaign for Pittsburgh in 2014, when he slashed .264/.338/.438 over 359 plate appearances. But he didn’t match that production after an offseason trade to the Orioles, and he ended the 2015 campaign with a .232/.313/.350 batting line in 265 turns at bat.

Likewise, the 32-year-old Ishikawa had a nice late-season run with the Giants, leading that club to retain him via arbitration. But he never really got going with San Francisco after dealing with injury issues early in the year and ended up with less than a hundred trips to the plate on the year.

As for Guerra, 26, last season represented his first taste of big league action. He provided 16 2/3 innings of relief work for Pittsburgh, but surrendered 12 earned runs and 26 hits (including five long balls) in that span. He did fare better in terms of strikeouts and walks (17:3), though, and posted a 1.23 ERA over 36 2/3 Triple-A frames (with 9.1 K/9 against 2.0 BB/9).

The Pirates have agreed to a minor-league deal with outfielder Travis Snider, Chris Cotillo of SB Nation reports on Twitter. Snider, 27, was recently released by the Orioles.

With the move, Pittsburgh brings back a player that it dealt just last winter. Snider had a breakout 2014 campaign with the Pirates, slashing .264/.338/.438. But he struggled in his time with Baltimore, hitting a disappointing .237/.318/.341 in his 236 turns at bat.

Snider’s strong work last year earned him a $2.1MM arbitration salary, though the O’s will remain on the hook for that tab (less the pro-rated portion of the league minimum salary for whatever time Snider spends in the big leagues). He comes with an additional season of control via arbitration.

TODAY: Snider says that he is “talking with multiple teams, including the Pirates,” Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports on Twitter. The free agent added that he “hope[s] to have a decision made soon.”

YESTERDAY: On his radio show this morning, Pirates GM Neal Huntington confirmed that he has reached out toTravis Snider’s camp and that there is some interest in a deal, Dan Zangrilli of 93.7 The Fan tweets. Snider, of course, was with the Pirates from 2012 through 2014 before an offseason trade sent him to Baltimore.

Snider, 27, was designated for assignment by the Orioles earlier this month and was ultimately released on Saturday. The Orioles acquired Snider as they sought to mix and match pieces to fill in for the departed Nelson Cruz and Nick Markakis. There was never much hope of fully replicating their collective production, but the O’s have nevertheless largely been disappointed by their Opening Day corner outfield platoon, leading the team to add Gerardo Parra last month.

The 2014 season looked like something of a breakout for Snider as he slashed .264/.338/.438 with 13 home runs, seemingly making good on his former top-prospect ratings. But, he was not able to carry that forward in Baltimore, as his current .659 OPS attests.